Dow Corning Shares Waste Reduction Examples in Zhangjiagang Plant      

Recently Dow Corning has reported significant progress in waste reduction, including a cut of up to 80% in process scrap at its manufacturing site in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province of Eastern China.
    Like many other companies Dow Corning is actively looking for ways to cut waste levels. The reductions have been achieved in part through the company's materials conversion program, which converts or recycles its waste, scrap and off-spec silicone materials instead of sending them to landfill or incineration. Materials are then reprocessed into new products that meet customers' specifications.
     Examples in China include recycling more than 80% of the waste at its Zhangjiagang sealant plant, in contrast to the 90% of waste that had previously been sent offsite for disposal. Through the first half of 2008, the Zhangjiagang sealant plant has reduced generation of nonhazardous silicone and solvent streams by 50% compared to 2007. The sealants plant also has established a program to focus on further reducing the sealant waste at its point of generation. The plant is committed to moving their waste stream up through the "waste hierarchy" from disposal to recycling, to reduction and elimination.